泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] The economics of video game

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

The economics of video game

 

Recently I watched the movie Spotlight. I like the film for its own sake, however, I am a big fan of Rachel McAdams, the heroine of the movie. She is well known for her role in the film About Time. She participated in an animated feature film as a voice actress at the end of last year. That was The Little Prince. I loved its beautiful images and her unforgettable voice acting as well.

 

I don't want to evaluate the animated film or talk about my favorite actress. I'd like to discuss the famous saying “Tame me!" by the fox in the great novel by french writer Saint-Exupéry.

 

The line from the novel has a couple of different meanings. One of the most-talked-about connotations is about cognition. Being tamed by someone means that one becomes one of a kind for him or her. Since the little prince tamed the fox, the fox became the only fox in the world for the prince not like a hundred thousand other foxes. The experience teaches the little prince that unique rose living in the Asteroid B 612—the name of the asteroid that is the home of the little prince—is the one for him not like five thousand roses in one garden.

 

The other meaning of the line is about scarcity. Our perception makes differences and scarcity is built around the differences. Thousands of ordinary roses in the garden, which haven't been tamed by the little prince, don't have something special for him. The easy accessibility to the roses depreciates their value. People who live near world-famous tourist attractions would not thrill watching the magnificent sceneries.

On the contrary, the limited accessibility makes people forgive to get closer to something. It's not easy for someone to make him/her mind to go to Antarctica to see penguins although he/she loves the short-legged flightless birds so much. Likewise, most average people usually give up easily to buy an unaffordable 20-carat diamond ring.

 

Recently, I played some newly released video games with a lack of accessibility. Balanced in-game virtual goods including items, characters, etc. are very critical for the accessibility to the game by users. The users would feel that a high-powered item or character, despite their advantages, are of no value to them due to their easy accessibility. But by comparison, they would easily forgive to have an extremely rare item or character. The balance of in-game virtual goods is closely bound up with paying user rate (PUR), retention, and average revenue per user (ARPU), etc. in most newly-released in-app purchase games. Now, game developers need to study economics for the virtual-world economy, if they want their items and characters, which themselves have made, to be tamed by users.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Handshake and acid rain

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

Handshake and acid rain

 

We shake hands with many people in life. But most of us don't know where it is derived from. It was a sign of peace showing that neither person was carrying a sword to attack each other. Most readers of this column probably know the term "acid rain" and use the word sometimes. However, a minority of people know that rainfall is acidic. The normal rainfall is slightly acidic compared to acid rain or acid deposition, which is a strong acid, because of the presence of dissolved carbonic acid. We often see the results of somethings forgetting about the true meaning of them.

 

What about in the video games? We can often see games lost their original purpose. While playing recently released role-playing games, users frequently have quests to kill giant monsters. In the majority of cases, it's killing the giant ones. The idea of a giant monster was originated from a trickery boss monster shown specific parts of the body on the screen when video games couldn't take up so much storage space. Most of them were dragon-like segmented monsters. Without drawing additional animations, developers only had to adjust their joint position to animate those monsters. It helped to shrink the size of the game and the super-size boss monsters have continuously developed thanks to great efficiency. After the capacity-related hardware problem being fixed, the mammoth monster was the symbol of strength. Especially, an overpowering boss monster in a massively multiplayer online role-playing game (MMORPG) could be killed only by group play or cooperative attack of a guild or clan. The mission of this kind was used to induce cooperation among players and users' active participation in a community, and the boss monster was faithful to its role. It also was a great motivator for a solo-playing user to improve his proficiency going through an ordeal wisely and overcoming the deficiency. Even a player, who had the highest level of character in a certain stage, couldn't kill a boss monster without his amazing control, and it was like training to goes to a higher difficulty level. However, as developers haven't earnestly thought about the necessity of the giant boss monster, it was demoted to the gigantic and flamboyant outer figure. And a user doesn't need to spend a few hours or several days to clear the biggest enemy because it is not a huge barrier anymore.

 

Of course, the massive and magnificent monster is a nice visual figure. However, it is nothing more than an unessential accessory in a game without its clear purpose or intention. There are too many pretty-pretty games these days. It seems that I am talking only about the boss monster, however, I'd like to say that I'm waiting for playing a not-fancy-but-fun game touching me.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌 [A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity] Dialectic of video game

泥中蟠龍's Game愛歌

[A love song for games of the dragon waiting for an opportunity]

 

Dialectic of video game

 

The dialectical method is a method of philosophical argument. Dialectics is to establish the truth resolving the contradiction through a discourse or argument between opposing forces holding different perspectives about a subject matter. It is a progression of three propositions—thesis, antithesis, and synthesis—in which the first opinion is followed by a second thought that denies the first, and the conflict between the two resolved by a third idea. It's largely discussed based on the development or progress.

 

The principles of the dialectical paradigm are often cited to explain the advance in a particular field. For example, cell phones have evolved over the years. In the early '90s, mobile phones were so large and heavy that they were often called brick. With continuous efforts to reduce the sizes, they were in users' pockets in the late '90s. As cellular phones were getting more portable, phone manufacturers came up with new features. Phones worked as a game console, camera, and an MP3 player. While the competition for better performance was heating up, phones had a camera from one million to four million megapixels and an MP3 player from 100MB to 1GB jukebox. Hand-held cell phones got heavy and large again due to their increased performance and additional functionalities. Since users consumed more and more content on their cellphones, the bigger-screen smartphone was first introduced to the market. The early version of the 3-inch smartphone was developed into a form of the large-and-heavy one because of the increasing number of applications. It's not hard to forecast that a high-portability product highlighting important functions will probably be released in the market shortly. This applies in various fields such as laptops, automobiles, and cameras as well as mobile phones.

 

How does it work in the gaming industry? Aside from their past histories, mobile games have been in the same situation for recent 2-3 years. Video game developers tried many different approaches to make an optimum game for mobile applications for the nascent smartphone market, which led to a variety of mobile games. And at one point, stable games proven in other devices were recognized in the market. For example, there was a role-playing game (RPG) and real-time strategy (RTS). In recent 1-2 years, they have been much more complicated with a wide range of improvements. A game user reaching a reasonable level of proficiency easily plays a stereotyped game. Developers keep trying to add new features to appeal to those users and a chosen function becomes a new stereotyped one. In this way, games are gradually difficult and complicated with various functions.

 

An excessively difficult game loses its customers little by little and only a few maniacs enjoy it. Recently, a game which has gone the opposite way is catching popularity. It's Clash Royale. The game, which drastically reduced complicated strategies from a popular hit Clash of Clans, focuses on the combat itself. It seems rather a tactic-centered game compared to the previous strategy game. The market has been always developed looking for the synthesis between thesis and antithesis. Clash Royale seems like the antithesis of the Clash of Clans. Now, it's time to suggest a new synthesis. I feel uncomfortable enjoying a role-playing game which makes me get tired due to too complicated rules and multiple features.

 

 

※ This is from Kyunghyang Games column by 泥中蟠龍 since September 2013.

(http://www.khgames.co.kr)

 

Translation by Kim Ki-hui